1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cash-less automatic vending system which allows specified customers or users to obtain or buy a desired item or items such as goods or service provided by automatic vending machines without using cash.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, if a person wants to buy something from an automatic vending machine, a trade transaction between the person and the automatic vending machine can be completed by inserting cash such as a bill or a coin into the machine or by inserting a pre-paid card which has a value corresponding to a certain amount of cash into the machine.
However, whenever a person wants to buy something from such an automatic vending machine, he or she always has to carry an amount of cash or a pre-paid card to the vending machine. As a result, the person will feel inconvenient. Moreover, if an amount of cash inserted into an automatic vending machine is larger than the price of a desired item, a customer often has to get a change from the automatic vending machine. At this time, if the automatic vending machine does not have sufficient cash corresponding to a sufficient amount of small changes, it will become impossible for the vending machine to complete its predetermined selling operation, hence bringing an inconvenience to customers. Alternatively, the vending machine may dispense the item but not return the proper change, if any, to the customer.
On the other hand, it is necessary for an automatic vending machine to be equipped with a cash identifying device for determining the value of the cash deposited and whether the cash deposited is true or not. Since the cash identifying device is manufactured at a high cost, the automatic vending machine is often expensive. In addition, during recent years, since the forgery of false bills and false coins has become more and more of a social problem, it has become necessary to frequently modify or repair these cash identifying devices in order to effectively deal with the increasing forgery. In addition, since an automatic vending machine is required to receive into it a certain amount of cash serving as an amount of small change, the machine itself must be theftproof. Moreover, the machine must be able to efficiently make and dispense change to a customer at the conclusion of a transaction. Hence, a considerable amount of labor is required in the daily maintenance of the automatic vending machine. Furthermore, if an automatic vending machine sells cigarettes and alcoholic drinks, the machine is required to have a function of restricting its selling operation at night so as not to easily sell cigarettes and alcoholic drinks to adolescents. For this reason, the chances of selling these items to adults will be undesirably decreased, hence undesirably reducing efficiency in the selling operation of the vending machine.
The present invention has been accomplished in order to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the invention to provide a cash-less automatic vending system which allows a customer to obtain his or her desired item without the necessity of using cash.
According to the present invention, a cash-less automatic vending system is obtained which is capable of settling accounts for items delivered to a customer by an automatic vending machine without using cash, a prepaid card, or a credit card. The cash-less automatic vending system comprises:
an automatic vending machine having items to be sold and delivering a requested one of the items in response to a selling allowance signal for the requested item, the automatic vending machine producing dispensing result data of the item delivered;
a communication terminal capable of inputting and transmitting a customer""s ID code and a purchase request for requesting to buy items in the automatic vending machine;
a vending management center coupled to the communication terminal and the automatic vending machine, the vending management center defining the customer""s ID code and the purchase request received from the communication terminal to transmit the selling allowance signal to the automatic vending machine, the vending management center producing user and sales data for the customer from the dispensing result data; and
an account center coupled to the vending management center and preparing an account for the customer by using the user and sales data in the vending management center, to settle the account with the customer.
According to an embodiment of the cash-less automatic vending system, the vending management center has a user/machine data base memory storing data about users who are allowed to use the cash-less automatic vending system. The vending management center also includes a user specifying means capable of specifying a current customer who has input the purchase request. This is accomplished by comparing the customer""s ID code input with the data in the user/machine data base memory to produce a user specifying signal when the current customer is one of the user registered in the user/machine data base. The vending management center further includes allowance determination means that responds to the user specifying signal in order to produce the selling allowance signal.
In another embodiment of the cash-less automatic vending system, the communication terminal is a portable communication terminal of the customer that is accommodated in a first communication network managed by a network management office. The customer""s ID code is a telephone number allotted to the portable communication terminal. The vending management center has a first communication control circuit by which the vending management center is coupled with the portable communication terminal and the account center through the first communication network. The account center is the network management office. The account center produces the account including a network using fee together with a sales account according to the user and sales data for the customer.
According to an embodiment, the cash-less automatic vending system further comprises a plurality of automatic vending machines having individual machine ID codes allotted thereto, respectively. Each of the automatic vending machines has a display for displaying its own machine ID code. While using the present invention, the current customer transmits, through his own portable communication terminal, the machine ID code of an intended one of automatic vending machines together with the purchase request to the vending management center. The vending management center has a machine data base storing data of automatic vending machines accommodated in the system, and a machine identifying means for identifying the intended machine by comparing the machine ID code input and the data in the machine data base memory to produce a machine specifying signal when the intended machine is one of the automatic vending machines registered in the machine data base memory. The selling allowance determination means produces the selling allowance signal based on reception of both of the user specifying signal and the machine specifying signal.
In the cash-less automatic vending system, upon receiving both of the user identifying signal and the machine identifying signal, the selling allowance determination means produces the selling allowance signal only when a predetermined condition is fulfilled.
In another embodiment of the cash-less automatic vending system, the vending management center has a second communication control means and each of the automatic vending machines has a communication control means. The vending management center and each of the automatic vending machines are coupled to each other by a second communication network through the second communication control means and the communication control means of each automatic vending machine.
In another embodiment, a communication interface is disposed between the portable communication terminal and the vending management center. The portable communication terminal communicates with the communication interface, and the communication interface means transmits to the vending management center the purchase request information obtained through the communication with the portable communication terminal.
The automatic vending machine involved in the present invention, may be a vending machine for selling cans of juice and cans of beer, a vending machine capable of introducing a drink such as juice into a paper cup and then selling it, a vending machine for selling cigarettes, a vending machine for use in a restaurant or a railway station for selling tickets. In other words, the automatic vending machine involved in the present invention, includes those which can sell various items and are capable of settling accounts with customers based on the prices of the items. Furthermore, such an automatic vending machine also includes a machine capable of settling accounts with users on the price of a service such as in a parking place.